Risk Factors Associated with Chronic Diseases among Families Registered in a Family Medicine Center, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) has 5364 Family Medicine Facilities (FMF) encompassing family folders (FF) with detailed medical information about family members. However, there is no health information system at the facility level to provide community morbidity statistics, especially about chronic communicable and noncommunicable diseases (NCD). Objectives: Develop statistical module centering on the risk factors associated with chronic diseases among families encompassed in family center folders. Methods: The study was done in a Family Medicine Center (FMC) in Giza. A sample of 2169 FFs forming 54% of the total available FFs in this center was selected by systematic random sampling technique. A software excel program was designed to include 8 sheets to integrate the data registered in 16 forms distributed in 32 pages with subsequent analysis of these data on chronic diseases. Results: The collected data were about 10477 individuals in 2169 FFs. The proportions of individuals diagnosed with chronic diseases were as follows: 51.9% diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, 26.2% with hypertension, 6% with cardiac diseases, 3.7% with renal diseases, 3.4% with psychological disorders, 2.1% with epilepsy, 1.3% with neurological disorders, 1.2% with liver diseases, 1.1% with blood diseases, 0.9% with asthma, 0.3% with bone diseases, 0.2% with skin diseases, and 1.8% with tuberculosis. There were statistically significant differences (p< 0.01) between the proportion of cases in terms of crowding index, age, sex, education, work status, and habits. Conclusion: The study provided a module of 8 forms including data from 32 pages of the family folders. This module allows the statistical analysis of the risk factors associated with chronic diseases among families registered in the FMF. Scaling up of this module across FMFs could guide service providers to support the at-risk families.